In the drilling and completions industry, the formation of boreholes for the purpose of production or injection of fluid is common. The boreholes are used for exploration or extraction of natural resources such as hydrocarbons, oil, gas, water, and alternatively for CO2 sequestration.
To extract the natural resources, it is common to cement a casing string into the borehole and then perforate the string and cement with a perforating gun. The perforations are isolated by installation and setting of packers or bridge plugs, and then fracturing fluid is delivered from the surface to fracture the formation outside of the isolated perforations. The borehole having the cemented casing string is known as a cased hole. The use of a perforating gun is typically performed in sequence from the bottom of the cased hole to the surface. The use of perforating guns practically eliminates the possibility of incorporating optics or sensor cables into an intelligent well system (“IWS”) because of the risk of damage to these sensitive systems. Furthermore, once the casing is perforated, screens must be put into place to prevent sand from being produced with desired extracted fluids. A screen must be run on the production pipe and an additional joint of pipe as a seal with a sliding sleeve for a selector flow screen is also included. The incorporation of the sand control system takes up valuable space within an inner diameter of a casing limiting a diameter of a production pipe passed therein. Screens, while necessary for sand control, also have other issues such as hot spots and susceptibility to damage during run-ins that need to be constantly addressed.
In lieu of cement, another common fracturing procedure involves the placement of external packers that isolate zones of the casing. The zones are created through the use of sliding sleeves. This method of fracturing involves proper packer placement when making up the string and delays to allow the packers to swell to isolate the zones. There are also potential uncertainties as to whether all the packers have attained a seal so that the developed pressure in the string is reliably going to the intended zone with the pressure delivered into the string at the surface. Proper sand control and the incorporation of a sand screen are still necessary for subsequent production.
Either of these operations is typically performed in several steps, requiring multiple trips into and out of the borehole with the work string which adds to expensive rig time. The interior diameter of a production tube affects the quantity of production fluids that are produced therethrough, however the ability to incorporate larger production tubes is prohibited by the current systems required for fracturing a formation wall of the borehole and subsequent sand-free production.
Thus, the art would be receptive to improved systems and methods for limiting the number of trips made into a borehole, increasing the available inner space for production, protecting intelligent systems in the borehole, and ultimately decreasing costs and increasing production.